The new standards, which will go into effect in 2013 for furnaces and 2015 for air conditioners and heat pumps, set regional equipment standards for the... Read more

Multifamily buildings are inherently green, thanks to the way they support denser, transit-friendly communities. No one makes that point more strongly than developer Jonathan Rose, who refuses to build anything on a site that wasn’t previously developed. But, Rose argues, that’s not enough. “Climate issues, biodiversity issues, energy... Read more

Water moves in, on, and through buildings in four ways, which we’ll discuss in order of the quantities involved; this order helps us set water management priorities.

1. Bulk water—rain, runoff, and other flows—is driven primarily by gravity but also by wind and pressure differences. Bulk water on the exterior of a building is managed by... Read more

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I would bet that sometime in the last 24 hours you have received a marketing message centered around how "green," how "environmentally friendly," or (if it's really serious), how "sustainable... Read more

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design... Read more

Environmental features can add considerable value to a building. But in real estate, a higher perceived value often fails to translate into a higher appraised value, complicating financial transactions and limiting incentives for owners to invest in green. The Appraisal Institute (AI), the most prominent U.S. membership organization of... Read more

I hate shopping. I'll do the grocery shopping, but when it comes to new appliances, home improvement, clothes--really anything else--I tell the shopper in the household what it is we need and he then spends the hours wading through specs, Consumer Reports,... Read more

In its newly released Pilot Credit 43, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has created a new incentive for product manufacturers to obtain third-party certification of their... Read more

The impending release of the ISO 50001 energy management standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has kept financial experts, global energy and carbon trackers, and executives at major... Read more

In its long-delayed 12th Report on Carcinogens, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has finally classified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen. The... Read more

Competing standards for building product emissions represent one of the most confusing areas in green product certifications, and relief may not be on the way. A highly anticipated effort faces questions following a joint June 3, 2011 announcement from NSF International and Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI) that the two would... Read more

What do you do when a green product doesn't live up to expectations? Here at BuildingGreen, we really want to see green building products succeed in the marketplace, and make it easy for professionals to find the best of the best.

But when we see something substandard, we feel it's important to point it out. To win the... Read more

Showers use up a lot of water, accounting for about 17% of all indoor residential water use, and old, inefficient... Read more

[Editor's note: Robert... Read more

As I've said before, windows are a silent but very high-tech part of our buildings. The advances in glazing in the last 30 years have been phenomenal. Will windows keep getting better and better with no end in sight?

In recent years, an increasing number of window manufacturers have been combining and refining the features... Read more

In a recent webcast on green building product certifications, I gave a counterintuitive example of greenwashing: a "recycled steel cabinet." Based on the number of questions I got about this, I... Read more

Salinas, California is now home to the first modular classrooms verified by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS). Modular classrooms installed in August 2010 at Bolsa Knolls Middle School received CHPS verification for New School Construction in February 2011—only the second California school to achieve CHPS verification. The... Read more

Is your flooring still “green” if you install it with a less-than-green adhesive? Many flooring products, from linoleum to cork to bamboo to carpet tile, have long burnished their green credentials, while flooring adhesives remained an afterthought left to the contractor. When Healthy Building Network (HBN) began reviewing flooring adhesives... Read more